Matt Koperniak will be back on an international stage this month, as the Adams native and St. Louis Cardinals farmhand will be playing in the World Baseball Classic.

“I’m thrilled” to be back in the WBC, Koperniak said. “It’s a great experience. I get to meet a lot of new guys from around the country, around the Bahamas and around the world honestly. It’s high level baseball, so it’s good in that regard too.

“It’s good in both ways.”

Koperniak, who was born in Great Britain, will play in his second WBC for that nation. 

In all, professional baseball players — ranging from Major Leaguers to independent ball players to those who had seen their pro careers end — will participate in the 20-nation tournament.

There are four pools of five teams each. Pool A will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Pool B will be played in Houston, while Pool C games are in Tokyo and Pool D games are in Miami.

Koperniak and the British squad are part of Pool B, and he is now in Houston with the rest of his teammates. The United States, Brazil, Italy and Mexico are the other Pool B teams.

Great Britain will make its debut on Friday at 1 p.m., Eastern time at Daikin Park in Houston, the home of the Astros. The British will play Mexico in their opener. Then on Saturday at 8 p.m., Koperniak and his mates will face American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal and the United States. The Mexico game will be on the FS1 cable channel, while the Saturday night game will be on the Fox Network.

Great Britain’s first experience was in 2023, and the team went 1-4. Great Britain lost 6-2 to the United States, 18-8 to Canada and 2-1 to Mexico. The lone win was a 7-5 victory over Columbia.

Koperniak left St. Louis Cardinals spring training in Jupiter, Fla., and flew to Phoenix, where Team Great Britain was working out. They played a pair of exhibition games, going 1-0-1, before jetting back to Houston to start the tournament.

“I knew the coach [Manager Brad Marcelino], he was our hitting coach from the last WBC,” Koperniak said in a phone interview with The Eagle from Arizona. “I kept in touch with him a little bit in the off-season. In the middle of January, into February was when they gave me the call to say I’d be playing for them.”

Unlike many on the team, Marcelino learned his baseball at the American School of London. He grew up in a town called Enfield, which sits about 13 miles north of London, until he was 11. His father, Oscar Marcelino, came over to England from the Philippines and built a long and respected baseball career on the British national team, entering the British Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016.

Koperniak said the invitation in 2026 did feel a little different than the one in 2023. After all, the former Hoosac Valley and Trinity College standout is now more of a veteran at this World Baseball Classic thing.

“It’s a little different” this time, he said. “There are a lot of new things that are happening this year for it. I think it’ll be another unique experience. Having played that the first time, and it was the first time Great Britain got to play in it.”

The British played exhibition games against Milwaukee and San Diego during their Arizona sojourn. In a 7-3 win over Milwaukee, Koperniak played left and right field. He was 2 for 4 with three runs batted in. He drove in a run in the fourth inning and then hit a two-run single inside the bag at first base in the fifth.

The game with San Diego went nine innings and ended in a 2-2 tie. Koperniak was 1 for 4, singling off of San Diego pitcher Joe Musgrave to load the bases. But reliever Johan Moreno struck out Trayce Thompson to end the inning and leave the sacks full of British players.

Koperniak is one of several players with Major League or high minor league experience on the Great Britain roster. Probably the best known player is Jazz Chisholm Jr., a native of the Bahamas, who because of that can play for Great Britain. Chisholm takes a leave from Yankees camp in Florida, where he is the second baseman for manager Aaron Boone.

Several players on the 2026 roster played in 2023. That list includes Red Sox infielder Nate Eaton and farmhand Jack Anderson. Eaton split time in 2025 between Boston and Class AAA Worcester.

Other than Chisholm, the biggest resume among players on the Great Britain squad belongs to catcher Harry Ford. Ford was Seattle’s first round selection, the 12th overall pick in the 2021 draft. The Mariners have since traded Ford to Washington. Ford was taken eight spots after the Red Sox took Marcello Mayer.

As a teammate of Koperniak’s in the last WBC, Ford hit .308 with two home runs.

“I think we’re pretty solid. We have a lot of speed. We’ve got a lot of good arms. We should be pretty good,” said Koperniak. “We have a tough bracket. We have a lot of good teams we’re playing. It should be fun.”

Great Britain will wrap up its pool play with a game Sunday afternoon against Italy and a game Monday against Brazil. Both of those games will be broadcast on the Tubi streaming site.

Pool A consists of Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Panama. Pool C this time around consists of Australia, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Japan and Czechia. Pool D will feature teams from the Dominican Republic, Israel, the Netherlands, Nicaragua and Venezuela.